AKA: You xia er, 遊俠兒
David Chiang is “The Wandering Swordsman,” a mischievous knight-errant who steals from the rich and gives to the poor. When duped into helping bandits steal treasure for their own gain, he sets out to return the valuables to their rightful owners regardless of the cost. This is director Chang Cheh’s follow up to HAVE SWORD, WILL TRAVEL (1969) with Chiang recast in a similar role and engaged in a similar plot involving an escort service attempting to protect valuable cargo in transport from bandits. The film established Chiang’s reoccuring screen persona of a flamboyant, lightly comical rascal always armed with a charming smile. Chiang’s frequent co-star Ti Lung is nowhere in sight, nor are Chang’s usual action directors Tang Chia and Lau Kar-leung involved but the film is still filled with the filmmaker’s trademark martial arts action and heroics.
The film is notable for its comedic twist on the wuxia genre at a time when martial arts films were generally more somber affairs. Not until the late ’70s were martial arts comedies, featuring similarly mischievous heroes, dominating the Hong Kong box office. Chiang portrays a carefree, impish knight-errant known only as “The Wandering Swordsman.” Like Robin Hood, he travels the countryside, merrily stealing from the rich and giving to the poor to such a degree that he’s forced to sell his weapons and horse just to buy food. He happens upon a sword maiden named Jiang Ning (Lily Li) and rescues her from attacking bandit Jin Li-loi (Wang Kuang-yu). It turns out that Jiang Ning is a member of the Wei Sheng Guards, an escort service led by her brother Jiang Wei (Cheng Lei). Hoping to fool would-be thieves, Jiang Wei is leading a decoy while Jiang Ning and remaining members of the Wei Sheng Guards have disguised themselves as peddlers to quietly transport the real valuable goods. Her run-in with Jin Li-loi tips off the Flying Robbers of Ji Dung to their plan. After The Wandering Swordsman has several more unrelated run-ins with members of the Flying Robbers, their leader “Foolproof” Kung Bi-yau (Chang Pei-shan), dupes the hero into believing that the valuables are intended to bride a corrupt official and that they plan to see that it’s redistributed to flood victims. The Wandering Swordsman reluctantly joins them in a successful assault on the guards but soon discovers his mistake and vows to make amends by recovering the stolen goods from the bandits. As he begins his attack alone, Jiang Ning reunites with her brother and the pair rush to aid The Wandering Swordsman.
This film provided the first appearance of Bolo Yeung, soon to be known affectionately as “The Chinese Hercules.” Also, Shaw Brothers beauty Lily Li made her first appearance in a Chang Cheh film. While not a dedicated martial arts star, she frequently fought onscreen (as she does here) and went on to briefly train under Lau Kar-leung. Yuen Cheung-yan, who co-choreographed the action with Chan Siu-pang, has a small speaking and fighting role, as does his brother, Yuen Woo-ping. It’s a rare speaking role for Yuen Woo-ping who rarely acted on film yet rose to international prominence three decades later as a world-class action director for the likes of CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON and THE MATRIX TRILOGY.
Genre: Wuxia
Companies: Shaw Brothers
Release Date: February 4, 1970
Producer: Run Run Shaw
Director: Chang Cheh
Action Director: Yuen Cheung-yan, Chan Siu-pang
Starring: David Chiang (Wandering Swordsman), Lily Li (Jiang Ning), Chang Pei-shan (Foolproof/Kung Bi-yau), Cheng Lei (Jiang Wei), Wang Kuang-yu (Single-Bladed Swordsman/Jin Li-loi), Wu Ma (The Fox/Hou Jiou)
